PodTours and Community Building with Chris Krimitsos

One of the ways we could create value that differentiates us from pretty much anyone else is we can meet you in the city that you live in, face to face, tell you we care about you by showing up, make sure to connect you to resources and demonstrate value, and then invite you to our event later on that year.

Hey, I'm Joe Fear and welcome to the Hustle and Flow Chart podcast. This is where we talk all about building businesses so they give you the freedom and fuel for your life. I'm not here to help you build a billion dollar business, but I am here to help you create a business with systems that work for you so you can make more money than you need just by working part time. You know, I was a chronic hustle mode kind of guy and I want to share my experiences and mentors I've met along the way to help you reframe things to be the most effective as an entrepreneur. I wish I had this guidance and insight when I was younger. So that's what I'm doing here for you. Please share and enjoy.

You know it, I know it. 2023 is almost done. It's crazy. 2024 is almost here. But we still have Q4 to rock and rol and make the most out of this time. That's why the new HubSpot sales hub is here. To sync up everything inside of your operations, your team, and allow for collaboration to happen along the full customer journey so you're not missing a beat. And I'm talking about workspace, you know, your analytics, everything's reporting across the board, so everybody's clued in and delivering as you should, bringing in more revenue. So with this whole thing, there's an AI platform, they just rolled out a conversational platform called Chat Spot. This thing's going to help you write copy using AI, generating emails, posts, so much more. All the stuff that you'd have to manually do. Well, that's different now. So tons of integrations, 1400 plus tons of ways to integrate features into your workflow. So this is something you want to definitely look into right now for Q4. So now's the time to go make a switch to HubSpot Sales Hub over at HubSpot.com sales. Mr. Kremitos, we're back. We're doing it again, man. It's, I think it's like, what, the second time this year we're, we're chatting on the pod. So it's great to have you back, my friend.

This year's a blur, so I don't, I Have to look at pictures to remember what happened this year. And I've been doing that last couple days.

Well, hey, we actually got a picture together. When you're here in San Diego.

That was a cool. That was a fun meeting at the ax throwing place.

That's right. You remember. I'm surprised. Yeah. So for anybody that hasn't been following Chris and PodFest, you have the. The PodFest event is coming up here in January, late January. What are the date? Oh, 26th through 29th. I just got to shout that out in January 2024. This is the correct, correct dates.

I just want to say it's 25 through the 29th, but the, the main days are 20. You had it right. 26, 27 to 25. 26, 27 main days. But yeah, just go to Podfast Expo.

Podcast Expo. Yeah, I was looking actually at an old brochure, but it's not far off.

Not too far off. Look at the back cover. You gotta look at the back cover that.

Ah, there we go. Yeah. So I mean, you've been like hustling, man. So you've literally been on tour, going around the States, America, all the cities. I mean, it seems like everywhere you've been and you're meeting up with podcasters in person. Yeah, we met up in San Diego, I don't know, a few months ago now, and hell of a turnout. It was a great event. I mean, you're like the master at bringing people together, having fun, giving great content, actionable pieces of advice, you know, and then. But doing it at scale. So, yeah, I want to. What are your thoughts on that? Because you're still in the middle of it right now.

Well, we, we will do 23 cities before it's all said and done. And we did them in about a three month span of time. Someone asked me, how are you doing it? And I said, oh, we just put an eventbrite and people, you know, we just put them on. He goes, no, no, that's not what I'm asking. Like, how do people show up? And I forget that we've been doing this so long that people don't just show up at events, if that makes sense. I know we're talking to your marketer, I'm a marketer. But we built a community, so that's more than marketing. The name PodFest means something to creators. And anywhere we went, you know, San Diego was a lot of fun. We had like 30 people there, la 80 people. Anywhere we go, we get anywhere from 20 to 80 people attending, which is surreal. All across America. And then Toronto, we just did this past weekend. We had over 50 people in attendance there. So Pod Fest is.

Is not just a name. It represents the podcast creator. And it's. They entrust us with their connectivity and education, and that's a very high honor, and it's amazing to watch. So most people, when I'm on the Pod tour, Joe, I know you know me. So the people that are part of our community help us accelerate the Pod Tour, but the majority of people have no idea who I am. So it's unusual where I go into a city and they're like, hey, you know, they're there for PodFest, but they don't even know who's Chris Kremetzos and his relation to PodFest. So it's been an amazing case study of building culture and then allowing that culture to flourish. And we do have leaders on the ground that help us in all the different cities, which makes this much easier for us to put on.

Yeah, that's interesting. You have built a culture. I think that's a great way to put it, because, yeah, I saw it live in person. When you're in the corner, I mean, you're hustling just like everybody else to put this thing on. It's not like you're sitting back and, you know, the man behind the curtain kind of thing. Like, you are grinding, and you've been doing it, what, this 10 years now, this. This podfest. But you've been doing other stuff, obviously before that. And, yeah, the culture piece, I mean, I think that's. There's something to say about that. Even as podcasters, any business owners, building a culture around your brand, around your business, and then bringing the right kind of people together so they can lift up that culture, not for you, but with you.

Yeah. Tiffany Cain and David Sayce is our west coast leaders, and they set up San Diego and la, and they were there with me all along. Without them, it wouldn't be possible. But people do ask me, like, hey, how are you doing this? And I forget. It's a unique thing that you. You could have a brand that, you know, you could do 20. I mean, we'd like to do 40 cities next year. There are cities in the Midwest that have not been touched in many different ways for podcasting, that we think we'd have huge amounts of people showing up. So Cleveland this year was amazing. We did Kentucky. Nashville was great. So we're starting to hit the interior of the US as well. But most of the time, we're in the Coast Texas, and then, you know, Canada has been very good to us as well.

What are a couple tips? I mean, just on this, while we're, while we're here, building culture, building community, especially in remote, when people don't really know you, because I'm imagining people are listening, watching, and they're like, okay, I would love to create this community around what I do. Like, are there a few best practices or tips you picked up over the years that you can lend to folks here?

So one of the things that it's tough to teach, but it's very necessary is I listen to my audience. So when someone's part of PodFest, it's tedious, but I'll answer the same question a hundred times over with the same.

Lovingly response.

Or I'll educate people on how we behave at podfast, the cultural values over and over and over again. We'll talk about pillars of the community of which you're one of.

So when you mention a pillar of the community, that's an individual that does a lot within the community, gives people an example or an avatar of like, what's expected of the behavior within the community. And then when it comes to scaling out from PodFest to a local event, we'll have town halls. So we do a lot of town halls where we get everybody together. People will show up. We'll get anywhere from 50, sometimes 80 people. And in that town hall, we explain what we're looking to do, we explain the initiatives, and then we'll say, if anyone would like to host something on the ground and you're already doing meetups or you want to supplement it and be on the POD tour, here's how we do this. And we'll set up our own eventbrite on our side, put it up on the podfest site. So immediately that gives it legitimacy to a much larger audience than the promoter on the ground that has already an audience. So between those two things, you create a synergy. And we'll do like 10, 20 bucks on Eventbrite ads, which you can do for bigger cities. We'll do five, ten dollars on Facebook ads. I wouldn't say that drives a lot. That's like I get one or two on eventbrite, I get like four or five extras. But you might as well do it since you're doing all the work.

But that, yeah, what drives it is the community and the culture. And you have to keep. You have to exemplify your own value. So the way I do that is I do it the best I can right now, PodFest has grown so much in that I do have an autoresponder where if they can't get to me right away, they could get to a team member to get what they need. But you want to do your best to talk to your people, make sure that they're heard. And by me going out on the grassroots, Joe, what's cool is when I go to a different city, it's almost like a political campaign. You learn a lot about that region, the. That city. I'll give you an example. So Canada. Yeah, we had a lot of division heads in Canada. And what you realize is, even though it's the same company and they're North America based, usually US based, once you go over to Canada, must be a different division head, because systems work differently because of the governmental structure of a different country. So Toronto for us is something that I think we could grow to 100 to 200 people once a year because of the fact that.

Industry people as long as well as independent show up. So we had a lot of really key connections in the room for everybody that attended. So it's like you learn little things or New York City, there's a lot of. Really. New York City has the most. How would I say, this colorful characters of any POD tour stop. And I love that because I'm from New York, but they're out of a movie. The people that show up at that meetup, you know, and it is funny, and it's great.

They're ready to go, man. Like, they're.

They're all real people. That's. And they're. They're just characters. And I love that, that, you know, each. Each place has a culture.

Yeah, yeah. It's. It is a political campaign. And it's really cool because you are lifting people up. And that's the thing I hear is it's people first. You know, it's like it's not you first or brand first. It's lifting others up and then exemplifying them as the pillars and like giving them the stage. And I like the fact that you give them borrowed trust or credibility by propping them up on your virtual stage. You know, it's like, talk about pod, you know, podcast guesting, for one. Like, this is a virtual stage here. You know, it's like this whole shared mutual authority or whatever in the space. It's doing more of that and doing it all the time is. Is. I know the ethos of what you do and shoot. That extends to podcasters as well. It's like you could do this virtually. It doesn't have to be in person.

That's right.

So on these tours, because, like on the San Diego Pod. PodFest Tour. Pod Tour, which is so cool. It's such a cool model. So everyone just check out podfest.com and podfestexpo.com sorry. And you can see where you've been in all these different states and cities and kind of start to see Visualize.

There's one thing I left out. And you're about to do this. So I was talking to a fellow promoter, and they said, what do you do on these tours? I'm sure as we're talking people.

Yeah.

So I. I figured out, okay, how can I create an educational component that pertains to all the tour stops that I could then individualize as I go out there? So what I did was, and Joe, the one tip that I give up on the screen, I don't know if it's on the sheet, but it's a $1 a day tip that you had exposed to me. Anyways, so what we did was we created a top 10 tips for the year, and I made a handout, which Joe has right now as we're talking. And the reason why I did a handout. I'll tell you why I did a handout. This is important for anyone that wants to do a tour stop. When you go out and you're depending on other people to set the stage for you, they might not hear all the details you need. So one of the things I always say, I need a projector and a screen. They might hear you, but they might not deliver on that promise. So that's okay. So what I did was I created this printed handout, which actually was great when I had a projector and screen, because I could say to the audience, hey, here's the tips. You have them in your hands, so just focus on me 100%, please. Because you. You don't even need to take notes. So they love that. And there's a QR code there where they could get tickets. So there's also a little QR code. Very tastefully done. But if I went to a place and they're like, oh, we didn't know you needed a projector or screen. Even though I probably said it 10 different times. You don't want to be upset in that moment. Like, I don't have what I need. So then I was, oh, no problem. Let me give everybody the handouts. And then I would teach from the handout. So I made sure it was ubiquitous because when you are on the road and you'll see this with stand up comics, you don't know what you're walking into.

If unless we were very lucky, half the stops had great promoters. Some, you know, the promoters did their best, but it wasn't maybe what we were accustomed to. But the handouts allow me to be ready for whatever comes my way. And I always have those on me in my backpack. So I'm not even checking that into the luggage, if that makes sense. So in case my luggage gets lost. So you got to always prepare for all the eventualities when you're on the road.

Dude. Yeah. Do you work off of a checklist at this point? Like, I mean, do you have these?

You would think so, but I have three or four things. You have to simplify it. So one thing is I have one pop up banner.

You could either ship it to the location before you get there. I try and travel with one just always I have those sheets that you, you have one in front of you. And then what I did was I took last year's program guide to podfast because that has a little bit of more information. The back cover had, you know, 10 year anniversary. And what I did, Joe, if you, if you put your finger over the, the QR code, it's a sticker. So the QR code no longer works. So I ordered stickers and put them over. But you would never notice that we did that. So that way the QR code is updated with the POD Tour discount. And for the people that attend the Pod tour, they get a discount because it's one of those, hey, you're here on live. There's a special discount. Time's out at the end of the week. And that creates urgency too. So. And it's not even a hard sell. You saw it. I teach. And then I say, selfishly, we'd love for you to come to PodFest. And then you give them the reasons. The community you feel here times that by 100. That's what that podfast sense. Or once a year event. And then we, we have had record sales this year. And I attribute that to the Pod Tour. And the reason why I wanted the, the reason why we created the Pod Tour last year is we do not want to be reliant on online marketing exclusively because that is a lazy way to rely on your sales. So one of the ways we could create value that differentiates us from pretty much anyone else is we could meet you in the city that you live in, face to face, tell you we care about you. By showing up, make sure to connect you to resources and demonstrate value and then invite you to our event later on that year. Does it take a lot of energy? Absolutely. Have I isolated and found three or four people that could help me run most of the stops next year. So I could just do the Southeast where I'm at, and maybe some big cities that I want to cherry pick. Absolutely. But it's. This is our second year doing this. Next year I'm almost positive it'll be sponsored from beginning to end with the signature sponsor. And then what we would do is sell two smaller sponsorships.

Let'S say 500 a piece. That would offset food and venue. So that's something that a lot of the stops. Not a lot.

A third of the stops this year was sponsored. The other two thirds, we just. We made it happen one way or another.

Got it. Yeah. And because you do it all right, I mean, you have a venue. It's usually what it's paired up with some cool activity, at least in San Diego, is axe throwing.

Yeah. Well, the San Diego was a unique one. We didn't have axe throwing at the other place. Nice. So there were some flavors on. Depending on what we got. Yeah, you looked at. On that.

I don't even think I threw an ax that night. I was just too busy talking or hanging out with you or something.

But no, it was a. It was a very good networking and collaborating. It just a very. I got bit by mosquitoes. You didn't. But anyways, the. The. My Florida blood. It was tasty.

I was gonna say weird because you're. Yeah. In the south. Here I am in San Diego. I don't get bit though. You're right.

So now that we've done this, we found amazing leaders. But the ideal venue for us. And this is something for someone to think. Depending on the vertical you're in, you have to think about what would be your ideal venue. The ideal venue for us is a recording studio that also has a common area. Because the recording studio benefits of having 50 or 100 podcasters, more than 3, 400 will know who you are. Because of the social reach and the RSVPs, these events tend to be free. So the tickets, you just register on eventbrite. On a free event, you get a 50% show factor. That's kind of the numbers we've come up with. If it's a Monday through Friday, once it's over a weekend, all bets are off. You're probably going to have a lower about 35 to 40% show factor. Even though you might get more RSVPs.

So then an audio recording studio or a podcast recording place is the ideal scenario for us. The studio usually provides the food so that that isolates no cost for the venue. The studio is happy to provide food because we're creating immense amount of value for them and their production house. And they usually have a really nice space with screen and projector because it's a studio with equipment and stuff. That's the easiest scenario for us. And that's a win win. 360 degrees for everybody makes perfect sense.

Yeah, they want those podcasters there in person. It's a pretty perfect market for them and exposure, all that fun stuff. So yeah, just pair that up to whatever your vertical is. There's something out there for everybody and it's just getting creative. And like you said, you can get this no cost venue. It's a cool setup and you just basically walk up with your backpack. I saw you, you had a backpack, suitcase. That was it. I think just by yourself. You know, I'm like, damn. And put on an event like that within.

Well, Tiffany and David were instrumental, so they found the venue and got. Got sponsors. It was great. But yeah, no, it's, you know, the other thing. And this is something for anyone that wants to practice speaking. There was times there are stops where it's literally myself, just by myself. Like you said what you just described with like half the stops.

I don't know if I could say this in a way that anyone would understand, but I do a lot of speaking. But a lot of my speaking is self generated because I'm a promoter, I could set up my own stops. There was sometimes Joe, that I hit a pocket between me and the audience that if I said to them, let's go walk out in the middle of the street right now. They'd follow me out there. Not that I would ever say that, but it's like when you hit the right rhythm and tune.

It was magical. It was really cool. It's almost like when a performer says, like I was in the flow, like a flow state and the audience calibrated with me. The. There's some magical moments where I don't necessarily realize how good it is until after. When people keep coming up to you one after another, you realize, okay, I must have hit a really good flow and resonate with everybody in there.

And you've done, you've practiced, obviously. But yeah, just like perform or improv, I mean that's probably the best. It's like you're. Yes. Anding and you're flowing with the audience because I know you connect, you're, you bring. Yeah, it's not like you're hiding back, you know, it's like you're there within everyone else. And I feel like that's the best way to create community. Big announcement here. The Hustle and Flowchart podcast is now the newest podcast on the HubSpot Podcast Network. They're the audio destination for business professionals. It's exactly why I joined the network, to expand what we've been doing here. Making business the fuel for your life, not the stressor, the burnout. We want to build fun and make business a big part of who we are and our expression out to others. So you're going to expect a lot more. More curated guests that sync up with this mission. Also, more topics and episodes from me. And I want you to keep listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. Go check out other shows on the HubSpot Podcast Network at HubSpot.com HubSpot podcast network. If you're looking to unlock more income and freedom, then I want to tell you about Kartra. It's the ultimate all in one business platform for online success. Now, with Kartra, you can create stunning pages, funnels, automate your marketing, and even launch online courses. There's a ton more. It's all in one place and it's one affordable price. So Kartra has every tool you need to scale. It's very simple to use. Now, right now you can get started for a free 30 day trial plus. Plus you could take off 20% off your first payment when you go. And visit www.hustleandflowchart.com Kartra Again, that is hustleandflowchart.com K A R T R A. I mean the fact that now you're teaching as well, which I'd love to teach some of these, maybe not the full 10.

No. Yeah. Well, let's pick some out.

Yeah. Yeah. And maybe some of these that have resonated the most while you've been on this tour. Like that come to mind for you? Like you mentioned, the dollar a day is a great strategy.

Credit you with that. You and Matt, you guys popularized that, so.

And then I gotta then pass the credit to where we learned it from. Who was or is Dennis Yu and he's been on this podcast. We actually have an episode all about the dollar a day strategy. So go check that out. It's from like years past, but the strategy is still my favorite tip this year.

That's A simple tip, but it's one that I found a way to teach. It is, think about the short form as you're creating the long form. And I'm not talking about like, hey, take your long form now and clip it out. What I'm saying is, before you even get to your long form, are you thinking about your short form? And I give people like an example. If I, a lot of us interview some of the world's greatest experts in these very niche topics. So let's say I was interviewing the world's greatest parrot expert, for instance, and he actually lives, in my opinion, in Homestead, Florida.

The number one question people ask anyone that has a parrot, which I have a parrot, they'll ask you, does it talk? And right behind it, how long does it live? So the question I would isolate to the number one expert as I'm doing a long form interview is, how long on average? And I would then list four or five species of parrots. How long do they live? And this guy has the stats. So it's not like, oh, they could live up to 120 years. You hear all these crazy things, but he'll tell you, like, macaws could live 60 years on average. This one lives 40. So as weird as that sounds, I could then isolate that as a short form. How long do parrots really live? Well, we asked the number one expert, and then you play the clip and then it's like, you want to learn more, go to the back to that guy. So a lot of people don't realize they already have some of the best short form under their nose, but they're not thinking about it before they do the long form. And I learned that mainly from YouTubers because they're obsessed, because the algorithm rewards their short form.

So that's something I would just tell people. Like, if you're gonna do a little strategy session with yourself before you interview someone, what's the short form? Stuff that you know will go viral before you even start the interview. And make sure you add those into your questioning.

That's a great one. And I Remember, I think YouTubers or maybe you suggested even creating thumbnails or like kind of preparing those in advance. Right?

Yeah, that was Patrick, Beth, David interviewed Tom Brady. That's right. And he had a great 90 minute interview. I was there in the audience. I was like, wow, this is really great. They were in a flow state. And towards the end, Tom Brady was just like, I was always fighting my personal best, which is what you want to hear from an athlete. Like that Right. He's like, yeah, I would create little competitions, but I wasn't angry at other people. It was my personal best and maximizing my potential. Then Patrick goes, but Michael Jordan had six rings. Is that what fueled you to go after seven to get seven super bowl titles? And he basically went back to what I just told you. He's like, not really. He goes, I'm in a team sport, blah, blah. But the thumbnail that they already created was Jordan with his six rings, Brady with his seven rings. And that was a lesson to me in that they had already done. I could guarantee you a strategy meeting, done some SEO homework on what would pull the most people to watch. So even though when I was watching it, I was like, this is a perfect interview. Why are they adding this? But if they don't have that, no one's watching. Not a lot of, not as many people are watching it on when they put it out there. So they're thinking about how do we get the audience attention to watch this amazing 90 minute masterwork? But we got to get them with one of these clips. So a lot of people will be like, well, I'm not interviewing Tom Brady. Well, I just gave you an example about something very niche. Are you interviewing the greatest marketer or one of the greatest? You know, a lot of people interview Wim Hof. What's something Wim Hof, the Iceman. What is something he hasn't been asked. Or something that's trending right now with someone like a Gary Breca that could ask Wim Hof and then combine the two. And now you got a thumbnail that's gonna get a million views that could. Then what happens with. By the way, I've learned this because I do a lot of just like yourself, a lot of really key consulting to some of the largest creators, those things. What they will do is they will give you a tent pole lift on your overall show, but they're not going to lift your show through the roof. But what they'll do is they'll break you out of a plateau and they might give you a 3, 4, 5% lift now. So now your new plateau just went up to 3% in your download numbers. So if you do it consistently now you're getting these lifts more often than not. And now you're growing again and it's very hard to do. Once you build a really nice base of listeners, most big creators plateau, or what happens is they plateau now. They're on a steady little decline. Very short, because people are finding new content. So that's how you keep yourself current and in everybody's.

Attention.

I love the strategy, man. And it's leveraging different platforms, like video shorts, YouTube, algorithms that now can customize that content to the best audience. And that's something I talk about all the time, is, you know, you want the right people listening and watching you. It's not like everyone you can pay a bunch of money to get, you know, there's. There's all these different publishing platforms. I won't name any names, but, like, they'll boost your numbers and they'll go crazy, but they're not going to necessarily sustain. Correct. Yeah. So on that note, because that was a great strategy, a core strategy that every podcaster can use is. Is think of those shorter clips in advance and basically do exactly what you just said. One of the most common things that podcasters are really any business owners after, like, what are the tools? What are the latest things that can get me going faster and further with the content that I have? You know, and obviously there's a craze of AI and all that, but I would. I would love your thoughts on, from the POD Tour, like, are there any key tools or. Yeah, basically tools that stand out that. That, like the top three of 2023 that stand out for podcasters.

For podcasters. Delphi AI, which is a tool that you use and brought it to my attention, where someone could create their own clone of themselves and have a virtual assistant that talks like them, thinks like them, answers like them, I think is groundbreaking, which is in beta. So let's just put that out there.

And I'll shout out that. You know, I have a version of that for this show. So it's cloned the episodes over at hustleandflowchart.com botbot so you can test it out. But, yeah, that's coming out. I think. I think this week, at the time.

Of this, we got a lot of people registering for it. I will tell you, though, there is a. There's being in an audience, there's fear and anxiety. So I'm trying my best to talk about it in a way that addresses that, but there is a human anxiety of, like, is it replacing me? So that's always something and I address it right away. I'm like, hey, give it a look, give it a try. But it's an amazing tool. ChatGPT, of course, that just keeps moving forward. So let's put that aside because we've all heard of it now. You can make your own custom tools there. I would say capsho is one for the podcasting side that gets mentioned a lot. C A P S H O and castmagic. Those are the ones that when I'm on tour and we're asking people that are reverberating right now with, with people. Pod Match is my favorite tool to match guest and podcasters, or if you want to be a guest on podcasters, that's number one on my, my top ten.

I love that. And so those are great tools. I mean, that's a. It's a pretty good round tool set there. Pod Match, actually, let's talk about that because that's one of the most common questions is, you know, how do I get on other shows that are relevant to me and I might not have my own show. I'm a big proponent when I'm talking to folks. It's like, you don't necessarily need your own podcast. You can borrow authority, borrow someone else's virtual stage and get in front of the key audience, the target avatar that you want to. So Pod Match, so that's your favorite. Talk about, like, I guess your theories of like, guesting and using the tool podmarsh.

So the number one question we get asked is like, how do I get on a podcast? Because if you already have a podcast, you're more asking, how do I grow? Right? But then remember, half the people show up to these things don't have a podcast yet, so they might want to figure out how to get on a podcast before they want to know if they want to do a podcast. So Pod Match is a very easy answer because it's an online tool, it's a matching service, and it matches a guest to the right podcast. They have an escalated where you could pay additional if you want to be fast tracked. But what they also do that I like for the podcaster side, if you use their standard operating procedures and use their flow, they actually pay you money on top of you paying for the service. They paid out over $150,000 to creators so far. So it's not a small amount of money. So it's like you could actually make money as a podcaster using their service. You as a guest then know that the podcasters are active on that service. So and then if you want an elevated service level, and by the way, it starts at like 23 bucks. We're not talking a lot of money. And the reason why I mentioned that is if you try and do, and you know this, there's professional booking services that charge 5, 10, 15, sometimes $25,000 to book you. And if you want that elevated service, it's well worth it. But if you want something that's cookie cutter has AI that uses, you know, in the matchmaking service pod Match is probably the easiest and.

Most recommended tool that we put out there.

Love it, man. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, start with guesting and it's, it's. There's a reason why that's the number one question. Because I think it's so sexy that the fact that you could show up on someone else's podcast, ideally prepared. Like, there's a whole. Yeah, there's a whole slew of things that, yeah, I recommend, folks, it's like, hey, give. Give that guest or that host all the information, like your one sheet. Don't only stop there. Like, give them all the topics you talk about, the questions, like, have them fully prepared. But you've done that work for them, they'll just love you. And then after the fact, this is something that we've been doing more. So is give them like a little package, like a swipe package of that content that, you know, usually they'll give you the download or whatever. They're like, yeah, here's the episode files. You can go do what you will with them. Audio, video. It's like, well, start making clips. Start making some emails and social media posts and even give it back to that, that host. Because they're probably really shitty at marketing their own show. Most people are. But it's like if you give them the tool set and the swipe files for them to market you and them, it's like everyone wins. So why not create a little system there? So that's, that's a little something that I've been starting.

I love that. That's great. The other thing I didn't mention about AI, and I've been saying this a lot, is I tell people not to allow AI to become their voice. So what's happening is a lot of people are getting very lazy and they're letting ChatGPT write everything for them. What they don't realize is every, like, the majority of people are doing the same thing. Therefore there's no uniqueness to their voice. So I always tell people, AI is there to.

Supplement and support your voice. It's not there to be your voice. So please be very careful. And I always say, I didn't say don't use AI because you know how people turn around. He said, don't use AI. I never said that. I said use it to supplement what you're doing, but don't use it to replace what you're doing, because then you lose your uniqueness. And in a world where everybody is copying each other, the person with the unique voice is going to resonate much differently than all the copycats out in the ether.

You got that right, man. And because using tools like Cast Magic Cap show are great, but like you said, it's like just.

It could get very addictive to where you're like, let it do the thinking for me. It's like, well, now you just lost.

The whole point of all this, the essence of it. Yeah. So there's always. It's a tricky balance of technology as it progresses, and it just gets better and better and faster. And now, you know. Yeah. And to the point it is a little scary when it's like, yeah, you could clone your voice like that. You can automate, you know, a custom thing based off of a script or whatever with, you know, 11 labs or.

Hey, Jin, 11 labs is the top one for cloning voice, right?

Yeah. And then that's the one I found.

I don't know if you found anything else. That's what I'm asking.

11 Labs is still the best from what I've found. But for video, have you seen the. Hey, Jin. H E Y J G E N. That is trippy, man. And I haven't even talked about it here. But what you can do is essentially record yourself for like a minute or two doing, you know, just getting the mannerisms. It's not perfect like intonation, but you can pump a script up. It will make that voice for you and that whole video match your words. You can put it in any language you want. So you could start speaking French right away, Spanish, whatever. And it's actually legit. We've checked this out. And yeah, so there's legitimate fear, but at the same time, it's this balance technology with humanity because the people side is not. That's not going away. And I feel like there's a. As AI pumps up, we're going to see more written in audio and video generated by AI it's going to be a lot more obvious that where the human side is a lot more of the valuable piece. It'll stand out.

Have you seen when you're searching for, like, blog articles, they're all like now, like, written by the same. Like, there's no. So back in the day, there used to be, like real blog articles with people's opinions and stuff. Now they're all like SEO, perfectly written to where you don't know what you. You're reading basically someone's paid review of something to sell something. I don't know if that makes sense. So it's like skewed. And I get that as marketers, I get that. But it's like I was like, I gotta go on usually YouTube or Reddit like to get really honest reviews because I can't find it on back in the day for anyone that's too young to remember this, you go on blogs and read people's reviews on stuff. Now the blogs are so manipulated. You know, it's a paid endorsement almost always. Are you seeing that?

I have, man. Yeah. And it was doing that before. It was like marketers just really good at SEO.

We were doing it, but now it's like a complete. Like you can't. It's tougher to find something because when you're searching it's always the stuff that's. Yeah. At the top is almost like a paid endorsement or they paid a famous blogger to write and that tool is number one recommend. You're like, that shouldn't be number one, should be like number five.

Well, let's be honest, like you said chat GPT. Now you can make a GPT or someone's already made it actually and it's like an SEO GPT. Just insert your shitty blog post that now pumps up a per.

I guess that's why we have sub stack and stuff. You know, it's from a person and it's their opinion. I guess it's just migrated. I'm thinking out loud just, you know, I guess that stuff that we used to have on the Internet has migrated into verified companies that tell you these are real people and then it's a pay model. But you can't used to find those blogs all the time where you. Oh, let me see what their opinion is. It doesn't exist.

And that goes back to the point of the separation. But it really should be a combined of technology and humanity. And I think humanity, like you said, you're searching for the humanity in the technology web of things and it's just going different places.

You know, I think that's why what you're doing with your accelerator is so needed in today's atmosphere because there's so much confusion of where to find good stuff. Then there's all the new AI tools which I really even I'm trying to navigate and I'm traveling, talk to people. Everybody's got different answers. And then it's like, how do you marry all that together for one to keep Your integrity intact, so you could grow your unique signature, but also use these tools to accelerate and grow kind of what you have in your brand. So I'm excited for what you're doing. I know you're bringing it to PodFest, but thank you for doing that. But I think your accelerator is gonna be a game changer for the people in it.

Appreciate it, man. Yeah. And that's where. And maybe this is where we wrap up, because I'd love to, I mean, just put it out there. And I know it's coming up in just a month or so, as is. Podfest is. I mean, if you're in the Florida area, east coast, or if you're willing to make that trip, get out there. And that's why I wanted to fast track this, this episode and make it so timely for folks, because it's not just podcasting. You have so much going on there in house in Orlando during that, what, three, four day stretch at PodFest.

It's one of the rare confluences of influencers coming together from all over the world.

AI tools, you know, people that you. What people don't realize is we live in a world now where there's like millions of influencers. So like the person you might need might not be the famous person you're thinking of. It might be someone else that has a bigger following with a more rabid base that maybe you just need to bounce into. But also what you're doing with helping people accelerate what they're doing in your private one day training, I think is going to be huge for us because. So I'm excited to put the email out to the podfast community for the.

People that need it. Yeah, yeah. And, and if you're going to PodFest, definitely consider, you know, joining that Mastermind slash accelerator. It's, it's basically a one day and mastermind, you know, small group, 20ish people there in a room, full day. But the whole point is to. You're going to be leaving now with all the tools and the things you need to not only start or at least optimize your podcast, but focused on business and making that your marketing hub for everything you do is. Yeah, exactly what you said, Chris. It's like you have the tools, you have the content, but it's like putting all that stuff together. That's the goal of that, that Mastermind kind of accelerator meet up there. But what's really cool, and thank you for doing this, Chris, is that it's all in house at podfest during the whole event. You know, Or I guess the day before things really get cooking. So it's all in the same place.

Yeah. The more I think about it as we're talking, it's rare, I think, because of COVID Covid cut things in half. And, like, all these communities had to restart. We were very fortunate to keep our community intact virtually. And then by doing the Pod Tour, rebuilding our community. And if you've never been to podfest, you'll feel it the moment you're in Joe's mastermind, like the family feel. But once you even walk outside there, you're actually going to be like these people, a little too friendly. What's going on here? It's because the community has been together for over 10 years. Over 60% of our attendees are repeat attendees, which is very rare for a conference of our size. So it's a really great place to be part of. And if you're a first timer, it's a very warm and welcoming environment.

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Just because you haven't been there before, you are part of the family once you're there. And, Chris, thanks for building the brand, building the community, and then sharing a little bit of that here on the podcast again.

Awesome.

So y' all listening? Thank you for making it this far. And if you're a podcast or if you're not a podcaster, I'm sure you got something here. And Pod Fest is still a place for you, even if you're, you know, like the influencer type, doing some video stuff. I know there's a lot of things that cater.

We have a whole video track. Yeah. A lot of people hear podcasts. They think it's audio only. We've been pioneering video since, like, 2016. We had all video tracks, so we have a lot of video creators, and we love YouTube, so we're not going to sit there and crap on it. It's whatever gets you your audience, and that's what we're here for.

Yep. Cool. Chris. Well, much love, brother. Thank you so much as always.

Thanks, Joe.

All right, all right. That's what I got for you today. And remember, it's not all about living to work. It's all about working to live if you need to do the work. But, you know, work can be fun and it should be fueling for your life. So if you enjoyed what you just heard, heard, if you got some nuggets of wisdom that you want to share or you're just noodling on right now, please go tell others the way that people find this show and how you can help others get their aha moments is through word of mouth. So if it is telling your friend, telling your family, send an email to your list writing a review or whatever it might be. Everything helps. So thank you so much for listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast and I will see you next time.